Re: A Challenge To All Extropians/Free Martketeers

Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Thu, 30 Apr 1998 18:16:41 -0700


hanson@econ.Berkeley.EDU (Robin Hanson) writes:
>There is no such thing as an inviolable consitutional entitlement. A disruptive
>transition may also disrupt the governments you expect to maintain this program,
>and the public good will that is essential to continuing it.
>
>If the purpose is to insure people against risks from who will benefit from
>a disruptive transition, why not just have people buy private insurance now?

Is there a private entity that would be willing to sell such insurance
and have a high probability of surviving the disruption well enough to
pay off?
Can the conditions under which this insurance would be paid off be
specified well enough to distinguish from conditions where the insuree
is simply too lazy to try hard enough to get a job?
(It isn't clear why people who want the government to provide the insurance
are confident that using the government allows them to ignore these questions.)

I think half of the argument is over providing insurance to those who
appear to lack the foresight to realize that the risks are unusually high.

-- 
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